"Angel" looks like Maho from BECK!!!!The hair on "Zeta Quick paint" looks amazing. Very nice job there. The rest of the painting is of course great. My favorite is "color test" though, It looks really sketchy (that's what it is I guess, hahaha), but the colors you chose look great! The bird is really fun to look at too.

You know... for the longest time, I've been wanting to do commissions, but I've never had any idea where to start. If I started doing commissions, would anyone here be willing to buy?

AGAINST: I woudn't, but I woudn't buy a Miyazaki sketch either because I'm a cheap bastard who doesn't buy art, and rarely buys manga or anime.

FOR: However that's no reason not to try. What's the harm in putting a "Commissions accepted" gif on your DA account or in your sig? If you are subtle about it and don't spam, I'm going to at least give moral support and may recommend a friend someday.

AGAINST: An artist friend of mine does commissioned artwork to pay his bills. Most of his art comes from comic book fans who want large-breasted hentai pictures of their favorite comic book characters. His natural and preferred style is very different, but almost no one will pay him to do that artwork. Can you stand to do crazy stuff in someone else's style or do you just want people to buy the artwork you have already done? There is a big difference and as an artist, my friend is not super happy.

FOR: He may be living with his mom, but he's making a small living with his art, not even more miserable somewhere at a fast food place or working as an accountant. If art is your dream, the earlier you pursue it, the more rapidly you can realize it.

AGAINST: I'm going to be painfully direct here. You are not as good as some of the commissioned artists out there who can't get work. You art style and color are good and I want to encourage you, but I don't feel like you have locked into your final art style. Looking at your work is like the early work for webcomics- it feels stiff and a little awkward like you are still drawing parts of pictures instead of an entire picture. Not that you can't get paid work, but just realize you have strong competition.

FOR: Nothing like paid work to make you focus, train and get better. Go to anime/comic book conventions and buy an art table to advertise your talent and to see how you stack up against the competition. Put your best stuff on CafePress so people can make T-shirts, mugs, etc. Even if a small number of people 'get' your artwork, hook them deep and get them to love you (ie: your art). If they love you, they will spend money to show their love. If you are willing to work really hard for very little money and willing to swallow some pride to get stronger, you will do OK as an artist. Fortunately, it doesn't cost you too much to try and fail, so you might as well try, right?

Good luck with your decision- either way. I look forward to seeing more of your art.

AGAINST: I'm going to be painfully direct here. You are not as good as some of the commissioned artists out there who can't get work. You art style and color are good and I want to encourage you, but I don't feel like you have locked into your final art style. Looking at your work is like the early work for webcomics- it feels stiff and a little awkward like you are still drawing parts of pictures instead of an entire picture. Not that you can't get paid work, but just realize you have strong competition.

This is probably The.biggest.obstacle. that I've felt about myself. I'm pretty sure just by taking a look at my gallery that I don't have a definite style that I stick with, and in a way that works for and against me.

As someone who is basically trying to improve himself, I find it hard to stick to one definite style because there is so many skills I could learn trying many different things. But if someone were to take a look at what I can do, they'll either think "wow he can do a lot," or "wow he doesn't know what he's doing." Honestly, I would like to try out commissioned work, but I feel that my fear of failure keeps me from trying. I guess I just have to deal with it some way or another

AGAINST: I'm going to be painfully direct here. You are not as good as some of the commissioned artists out there who can't get work. You art style and color are good and I want to encourage you, but I don't feel like you have locked into your final art style. Looking at your work is like the early work for webcomics- it feels stiff and a little awkward like you are still drawing parts of pictures instead of an entire picture. Not that you can't get paid work, but just realize you have strong competition.

This is probably The.biggest.obstacle. that I've felt about myself. I'm pretty sure just by taking a look at my gallery that I don't have a definite style that I stick with, and in a way that works for and against me.

As someone who is basically trying to improve himself, I find it hard to stick to one definite style because there is so many skills I could learn trying many different things. But if someone were to take a look at what I can do, they'll either think "wow he can do a lot," or "wow he doesn't know what he's doing." Honestly, I would like to try out commissioned work, but I feel that my fear of failure keeps me from trying. I guess I just have to deal with it some way or another

Some artists are blind to their flaws and never improve. You don't sound like you have that problem, so you definitely will get better. You just need to practice. What better way to practice than to get paid by people!

If you want to feel a little better, try looking at sluggy.com and questionablecontent.net. Read the last week of comics and THEN check out the first month of comics. REALLY big differences. Even Penny-Arcade. Their old stuff is so rough, so crude... almost bad. My point is that we never get to see the early stuff of most manga artists, so we don't know how they evolved and found their own style (usually), but in webcomics, they keep their evidence online. You can see where they were and what it took to get to their current style. Love it or hate it, they now have a strong style in which every stroke feels like it is in place and complimentary.

I think it is good that you try so many things. Hell, even Picaso tried a bunch of different stuff before he found his own artistic voice. How would you "fail"? Would it be a drawing so bad someone asks for their money back? Honestly, I don't see that happening unless your portfolio online doesn't really represent your skill. If someone thinks you don't know what you are doing, they won't commission work. Is someone likes your stuff, they will check out your prices and most likely be happy if it looks as good as what you have already done.

The only tricky parts may be pricing and managing expectations. That's marketing, my specialty. I recommend starting on the really cheap side until you get 1-2 commissions under your belt. Then you can start playing around with the price. When pricing, make sure you don't just do a flat price ($20 per pencil, $80 per full-color) because there could be huge differences in detail work. Maybe put something like "as low as $XX, but can go higher depending upon the size of the illustration, detail work and delivery time."

1) You have some talent. Yeah, you can improve, but you also probably can get a few jobs now.2) You know you can improve, so don't charge a fortune and look like an idiot.3) Failure risk is minimal. No one will die if you do a bad drawing, no one will get sick or hurt and you can't take down the US finance industry or a car company with your drawings. You don't even have to charge someone if you feel like you did a bad job. Hell, if you did that, you'd probably get a great reputation and get more work anyway.

I say start. Just have no illusions about being successful overnight. Good luck!!!

Hello again. It's been a while, hasn't it? Well anyway, I usually don't feel like posting unless I have a breakthrough, but I think it's a bit overdue since I've last posted. Anyway, here we go.

Rough Works With No particular Theme

Stuff related to school. Notice how lazy my drawings are for school e___e. Really bad. My class was going for a more comic book cartoon feel, which I couldn't emulate correctly at the time. That + laziness = not so great artwork.

Ragnarok Sidestories. I'm working on a little project regarding small stories with my girlfriend's and my characters from Ragnarok Online. Currently in development. This is where my work is so far.

Neko-Jo. My girlfriend's main character is a perma battle acolyte with insane strength.

Zumatoyu Kurai. An alternate character of mine. He's actually not from RO, but I made him when ninja came to RO. He is probably the oldest character I've ever created, and dates back to middle school. (See this picture HERE.)I'm having a really hard time thinking of concepts with him because I already have so many set ideas for him from a long time ago. Eventually, I scrapped a lot of old ideas that are outdated and created his current image based on basic ninja wear.

Completed drawings. My favorite.

Neko-Jo Final concept. A cleaned look that will end up in 3d. My girlfriend sleeping. She likes to sleep during the day while I work on stuff. Shout out to Shaun of the Dead. This was just a quick thing I did when I was bored. Iroha from Samurai Shodown. My girlfriend constantly teases me about liking/oogling ninja and maids. Iroha is a ninja maid. Embarrassment ensues. A friend of mine who likes to AFK while he's partying with us. He somehow manages to get the job done. Yet another friend who loves to play solitaire while playing. She's actually really active now. This was based on a certain skirt/suit that my girlfriend has + my interpretative ideas entering my head. A more completed drawing based on the skirt/suit of my girlfriend. This might end up in 3d.

As a bonus, I've experimented with showing my way of coloring on youtube. Here.

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